How does your county rank in fast food outlets?

As First Lady Michelle Obama launches her "Let's Move" campaign targeted at childhood obesity, the number of fast food restaurants per capita is one area worth looking at. New data from the Food Environment Atlas show 22 rural U.S. counties have more than 1½ fast food restaurants per 1,000 people, the Daily Yonder reports. The atlas, released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, is a "tool for providing a spatial overview of a community’s ability to access healthy food and its success in doing so."

San Juan County, Colo. (Wikipedia map), leads the country by a wide margin with 7.117 fast food restaurants per 1,000 people (four restaurants and a population of 558), the Yonder reports in a Top 50 list. A quick glance at the Yonder map below suggests that tourism and highways have a lot to do with a high rate.

The Yonder also has county-level maps for pounds of meat and poultry eaten per person, gallons of soft drinks consumed per person, pounds of fruits and vegetables eaten per person and the percentage of obese adults. A great source for some local reporting on a national problem that in many cases is a local problem.

Residents of 13 states average spending more than $500 each per year on fast food. The data often relate to diabetes, obesity and lack of phyisical activity, as measured by continuing national surveys. Five states report less than 60 percent of their residents are defined as physically active (150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week, 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week, or some combination of the two). Kentucky is the only state in both categories. (Read more)